America is probably the most technological country in the free world.
Everything we want is at our fingertips, it seems... if we can AFFORD all those
labor-saving devices.

We put our dirty dishes in the dishwasher, add some soap, turn on the switch,
and leave the kitchen. We can walk into the laundry room, use the same
procedure, and switch on the washing machine.

We have automobiles that can zoom us around the horse-drawn carriages in
Amish country, and superhighways that can take us from coast to coast in just a
matter of days. FYI, one of the old Bible prophets looked into the future
and saw the "chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through
the squares, looking like flaming torches, darting about like lightning" (Nahum
2:4). Sounds like Christmas shoppers!

In the "olden days" just to make toast, we kids had to wait until we smelled
the toast start to burn, flip the sides of the toaster down, turn the bread over
(trying not to burn our fingers), put the sides back up and wait until we
smelled the other side start to burn. We would then have to scrape the
black off the toast (which would usually end up in the butter dish). When
Grandma made toast, she would sometimes get sidetracked, and black smoke would
roll out the kitchen door. Today we have pop-up toasters for our pop tarts
(and grandma is in a nursing home).

We have drive-through meals, drive-through banks, car washes, pharmacies,
wedding chapels, and even drive-by shootings! EVERYBODY seems to be in a
hurry!

What are we doing with all the time we save? With the American woman
working full-time and the family running in different directions, the work load
and stress levels have more than doubled. I think that this is one of the
things that has led to everyone looking for short-cuts. We want a faster
computer, phone service, microwaves, and on and on.

Sometimes those short-cuts aren't so short. Just ask any wife who's
taken a trip with hubby. It goes like this:

"Honey, why are you going this way?"
"One of the guys said I could save at least 5 miles by taking this route."

Of course, the "short-cut" ends up adding over ten miles to the journey.

Years ago, when I was raising a family, I was trying to shave some time off
my housework. One morning, I was making a bed. It was a double bed
that sat with the headboard against the middle of the wall. I had tried to
do this several ways. My sister-in-law followed a friend's suggestion, by
making her bed one side at a time.

I tried it, but it didn't go well. I kept running around the bed,
trying to get everything smooth and even. (Don'tcha just hate when tables
or beds sit in the middle of the floor?)

This day, the covers weren't too strewn about, so I thought I could pick them
up all together, shake them out, and they would fall neatly onto the mattress.
Well, that didn't happen. Somehow, the top sheet was too long on one side,
and the blanket and spread were hanging too short. I ran around to the
other side of the bed, trying to straighten them. Coming back around to
the first side, I shook them out again to get everything even. I went
around the bed once again to check the other side. The blanket had somehow
slid during the shake, and was now hanging way below the spread.

This time, I decided to go to the foot of the bed, grab all the covers and
shake them toward the head of the bed. It was the spread's turn to land
sideways. I thought, "This short-cut sure is time consuming!" It was then
that I heard that still, small voice in my heart-ear. Another object
lesson was about to begin.

God: "What are you doing?"

Me: "I'm taking a short-cut to making this bed."

God: "How's it going?"

Me: "You should know; you've been watching me run around and
around this bed for the past ten minutes, and the covers are still lopsided!"

God: "That's the trouble with short-cuts. They take
longer. People are always looking for short-cuts, even in the Spiritual
realm. They don't want to go through the maturing process, but there is no other
way. The long
way around is the most thorough. Israel saw that in the wilderness.
They kept trying to do things their own way. That was the
reason why an 11 day journey took 40 years (Deuteronomy 1:2). They kept
having to go back and take another trip around the mountain. If my people
would learn that there is no short-cut to knowing Me, they would be spared much.
Obedience is better than offering a sacrifice."

God uses any opportunity in life to interject His precious words of wisdom
and instruction into our hearts. He loves us so.

Watch for them. Stay alert. Our Father is more eager to commune
with us than we realize.

The Pastor's Desk

Re: Previous Website

The Home Place Mission had a former site and the time came where we had to switch web site hosts. Our email had to be changed as well. In transferring the articles over, every effort was made to correct any inferences to the old email address (the new one is on the home page). Also, all articles containing hyper links were needing updated too. Please forgive us if some things may have been overlooked. Because this page is in a blog format, the date we transferred each article over is what shows under the title when opened. The correct date each article was written is beside the title under the category column. We apologize for the blog format, as it is not as "user-friendly" as our old site but we do hope you find the articles encouraging and are blessed by the insights shared! Thank you for reading!